Spoon River Journal
Canton Veterans Memorial makes progress
Despite winter — or perhaps because it has been a mild season so far — the new veterans memorial at Lakeland Park is chugging along.
After four re-designs, the $200,000 project features black granite monuments and flags overlooking Lakeland's 440 acres of reclaimed strip mines. It will have a specially-constructed brick terrace with a drainage system to stabilize the memorial bricks and keep maintenance to a minimum.
Canton Park District Executive Director Jon Johnson says the foundation work is complete, along with the bases for the three largest flag poles. What he calls scaffolding and the construction folks call "tables and chairs" that hold the bricks in place may be delivered any day now. Meanwhile, the monuments are being lazer-etched, and should be ready by mid-March.
"This has been a strange winter, but as soon as it is officially over (whenever that might be) we will begin the process of installing the 'tables and chairs' and then the bricks," Johnson said via email.
Fundraising efforts broke the $150,000 mark last week, but the veterans committee could use more help. The 4-by-8-inch bricks sell for $100; 8-by-8-inch bricks for $500. For more information, call Bob Ems at 309-647-7174.
Author Terry BiboPosted on February 23, 2012 March 15, 2013 Leave a comment on Canton Veterans Memorial makes progress
the final bird word, for now
For those of us who yearn to fly somewhere — anywhere — when we spy wild geese, February has been outstanding.
According to Lee Albright, manager at Chautauqua National Wildlife Refuge, there were 125,000 snow geese on the South Pool last week. He says the honkers fly out to the fields to feed during the day, which is why random motorists can spot so many. Last Friday, looking up over Farmington, you could barely mark a single V in the raucous scrum overhead. It was more of an overlapping flapping alphabet of Ms and Ws and Js and Os. Just when it crosses your mind that looking up at so many geese may not be advisable, sans umbrella, there's a lone bald eagle cruising along beneath them.
Perhaps more importantly, the Chautauqua folks also counted 9,300 mallards on the North Pool, and 650 mallards on the South Pool — about a third more than the 6,800-mallard high last fall. Albright suspects the birds are finding nutsedge seed, one of the main by-products of draining the pool to mimic the natural river cycles.
Author Terry BiboPosted on February 22, 2012 March 15, 2013 Leave a comment on the final bird word, for now
Living in West Central Illinois, you don't have to go far to see stunning displays of migratory birds.
Living in West Central Illinois, you don't have to go far to see stunning displays of migratory birds.
You can drive along the Illinois River to wildlife refuges such as Chautauqua or Emiquon. That's no guarantee. There were supposed to be 150,000 snow geese at Chautauqua a week ago, but they were gone by the time people came for the Eagle Day Festival Saturday. Dickson Mounds director Michael Bryant said they tend to head out to local cornfields en masse during the day, then return in the evening.
Which means your other alternative may be stepping into the backyard at dawn or dusk. All week, snow geese have been honking through the fog by the thousands around here. This is a photo of some of them, probably Emiquon birds.
snow geese from Emiquon
Author Terry BiboPosted on February 16, 2012 March 15, 2013 Leave a comment on No place like home
Chautauqua eagles
Professional eagle watchers had warned that it might be difficult to spot the big birds Saturday.
Warm weather was welcome for many reasons, but there's not much ice. Eagles are easier to spot mid-winter when they cluster around open water.
Warm weather was welcome for many reasons, but there's not much ice. Eagles are easier to spot mid-winter when they cluster around open water.
Still, the Eagle Day Festival was set months in advance. Just in case, there were live bird shows at Dickson Mounds and the new visitors center in Lewistown. Hundreds of people turned out, even though the weather abruptly turned seasonably cold. While they may not have seen dozens of eagles, you could spy a few here and there if you searched a bit.
Here are a couple of examples, from the west side of the South Pool at Chautauqua:
Author Terry BiboPosted on February 13, 2012 March 15, 2013 Leave a comment on Chautauqua eagles
"The Age of Austerity"
When the Canton City Council sat down for its daylong strategic planning session last Saturday, George Hall was at the table.
Hall is chairman of the Fulton County Board, not a member of the council. But he goes to a lot of public meetings.
Hall is chairman of the Fulton County Board, not a member of the council. But he goes to a lot of public meetings as a taxpayer, as well. He has an engineer's knack for obsessively grinding his way through any agenda until he gets to his objective, which grates on a lot of people. On the other hand, he definitely puts in some serious time.
This is not meant as a political comment. His predecessor as board chairman, Ed Ketcham, also is running again this spring and addressed the council at the afternoon session. But as a bit of a civic aside, it was interesting to hear what Hall recommends as bedside reading between meetings. He's about halfway through a book called "The Age of Austerity: How Scarcity Will Remake American Politics" by Thomas Byrne Edsall.
"All I'm interested in is cost-effective government," Hall says.
Considering that Fulton County is hardly the only place where the strain on tax money sparks talk of service cutbacks, it's probably worth checking out.
Author Terry BiboPosted on February 8, 2012 March 15, 2013 Leave a comment on "The Age of Austerity"
Perhaps it is a coincidence that people have contacted me about blogs lately. They couldn't have known that Spoon River Journal was under consideration as a new blog about what's happening in Fulton and Mason Counties. But reader input has always been one of the things that keeps newspapers interesting. After all, how would we know what's going on if people didn't tell us? Contrary to popular opinion, most reporters don't make this stuff up.
We couldn't.
Perhaps it is a coincidence that people have contacted me about blogs lately. They couldn't have known that Spoon River Journal was under consideration as a new blog about what's happening in Fulton and Mason Counties. But reader input has always been one of the things that keeps newspapers interesting. After all, how would journalists know what's going on if people didn't tell us? Contrary to popular opinion, most reporters don't make this stuff up.
Frequently, we couldn't.
Max Latimer of Cuba was writing about the down side of computerized reader feedback, however.
"What I had intended to speak about was how comments sections, and perhaps blogs also, include the height of incivility between people that can remain anonymous from each other. Our political arena has been a model of incivility as well as talent contests, reality TV shows, and YouTube videos of teens bullying someone not as hip as their peers think everyone should be," he wrote, while recovering from foot surgery.
He said social media is reducing face to face communications. And he notes that just about anyone using the Internet has gotten derogatory emails from anonymous people who would never think of being so rude in person.
Point taken.
Seen it. Felt it. Didn't like it much.
So here's a request. For the most part, this is a place for background and commentary. And if you want to use this space to sound off about things in Spoon River country, welcome. Just bring some proof and/or tell us who you are. Otherwise, buzz off.
Author Terry BiboPosted on February 3, 2012 March 15, 2013 Leave a comment on Getting started
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